_Marketing Myth: “Our current customers have always been responsible for our company’s growth because they refer us to their friends and relatives. We grow by referrals. It’s always worked in the past.” While sitting back, waiting for customers to voluntarily refer your business may have worked in the past, it certainly isn’t a strategy that will produce business growth today. Here are 10 ideas to ramp up your marketing efforts and dispel this myth. Have a plan. Study what successful companies are doing to market. Stay positive. A positive attitude will spill over into all aspects of your business. Refine your marketing message. Without a clear message, you’ll waste valuable time and miss opportunities to attract the kind of clients you’re looking for. Improve your marketing materials including your web site. If you haven’t made any updates to your site in a year – shame on you! People return to sites that contain new, fresh material! Combine your services/products into “packages” so consumers have a choice. Get out there! Schedule networking at least one time a week. Then follow up with those you meet. Keep in Touch. Most companies spend time and money trying to get new customers and forget about the goldmine hidden in their current customers. Create a Keep-in-Touch program. Here’s what you can do today! Email me for your FREE report on what you can do to Keep In Touch with your current customers, then choose something off the list and do it TODAY! This list is full of web sites for more information on each tip. You won’t want to miss it! If you need help creating a Keep-in-Touch program, let me know. We are working with several companies on their Keep-in-Touch programs. One of the hardest things to do is be consistent with keeping in touch so we help you do that! If you are an editor or publisher of a publication and would like to use this article, please do so! Just be sure the following line goes with it and that you don’t edit it in any way. (And it would be nice if you emailed a copy of the article in the publication once it’s created!) June Van Klaveren, owner of Compelling Communications, helps her clients be known, be heard and be seen through dynamic marketing material creation.

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These articles may be freely published in any e-zine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as my name and bio remain in tact. Please send me a link when you run my work. Just be sure to NOT edit them in any way and to always include this credit line: June Van Klaveren owns Compelling Communications, a company that helps clients attract and keep customers. She can be reached at 800-779-0067 or through the web site www.compelcom.com